Wireless Local Area Networks (LANs) are a popular and inexpensive way to allow multiple users of mobile units to communicate with each other, to access a wired LAN, to access a local server, to access a remote server, such as over the Internet, etc. Wireless LANs are employed within facilities such as businesses, university classrooms or buildings, airport lounges, hotel meeting rooms, etc. When a user is physically located in the vicinity of an access point, the transceiver of the mobile unit communicates with the access point and a connection to the wireless LAN is established.
A LAN may also include one or more Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs). A VLAN includes a group of devices with a common set of requirements that communicate as if they were attached to the same broadcast domain, regardless of their physical location. A VLAN has the same attributes as a physical LAN, but allows for devices to be grouped together even if they are not located on the same network switch. Conventional VLANs were statically configured on wired networks using the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.1Q networking standard. Typically, Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs) are governed by a set of policies relating to network security, user permissions and the like.